Tuesday 11 July the frigate Carlo Margottini of the Navy, welcomed the destroyer in the port of Civitavecchia Changchun, to the frigate Jingzhou and the refueler Chaohu, which constitute the 150 task group of People Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the Chinese navy.
During the Italian stop, the commander of the PLAN TG 150 and Deputy Commander of the East Sea Fleet of the Chinese Navy, Admiral Shen Hao and his delegation, visited the Navy Operations Center (COMM) as part of a general program of activities planned by the Defense Staff. In Santa Rosa the Chinese delegation, received by Rear Admiral Vincenzo Montanaro, head of the operations department of the command in chief of the naval team, was presented with a briefing on the organization and functions of the naval team and the capabilities of the COMM. The visit continued in the various operational areas from where the command and control of the naval team and of the naval operations are exercised.
Since the end of the Second World War, relations of cooperation in the field of military defense and cooperation for peacekeeping missions between the two countries have been increasingly consolidated. In 1996, the two navies held the first joint exercise in the waters off Shanghai. Collaboration in the operational field is also increasingly frequent; the Chinese navy, in fact, contributes to anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.
The three days in the port also favored opportunities for exchange between the crews.
Exchange of squares and operational meetings, functional to the detailed planning of the activity at sea, have allowed the Italian and Chinese sailors to get to know each other a little better.
The 14 July after leaving the port of Civitavecchia, the task group Chinese and the frigate Margottini conducted a dense training program at sea, testing crew standards in a wide range of activities, from complex kinematic maneuvers to boarding operations aimed at controlling merchant traffic, passing from take-offs and landings of embarked helicopters, the SH- 90 Italian and Chinese Z-9D, on each other's flight decks. Finally, the exchange of observers made it possible to compare two different "seafaring" perspectives.
